Unpaid Labor

Bear in mind, this isn't sour grapes, just a decision made when I looked at where my life and priorities were right now.

I'm going to look more in-depth at this issue very soon, but I just wanted to share with my friends and readers a portion of an e-mail I sent to one of my editors at Newsarama about my decision to no longer provide unpaid work to any site I know for a fact to be turning a profit off my efforts:

Throughout the week I've tried to contact [one of my editors] about a few things with no success; it appears that he has decided my e-mails don't rate unless he wants free con coverage or my help in setting up [one of their staff writers] to interview one of my contacts. A friend of mine, union organizer and public-interest lawyer Jonathan Tasini, has filed a lawsuit against The Huffington Post this week, challenging their long-standing business model of making money off of people who work for "exposure," always promising their freelancers and contributors that there will be some eventual light at the end of the tunnel and never coming through with a red cent. And it reminded me of the numerous conversations that I had with [two of my editors] around last years' New York Comic Con--[senior management]'s claims that "There'll be paying work if you just trust us, get there, and start writing." It just didn't feel right and I didn't know why--and then it hit me. When I started working for Newsarama, I did so because, even though I had a personal and financial investment in Comic Related, 'Rama was offering me paying work at conventions and a steady gig on their blog, which earned me street cred and free books from people eager to get exposure. They very quickly stopped paying for anything (literally within a couple of months after I got my first check from them, they asked me to cover a second convention but this one they "couldn't guarantee" any payment--ultimately none at all was forthcoming or ever seriously discussed and I don't think I even made the show in the end) and yet I continued to write for them because, well, it's Newsarama. But I've got a serious day job, a kid and two graphic novels underway right now. I just can no longer see myself contributing unpaid work to a company that doesn't give a shit about me in exchange for free comics that come from a third party (or several). Newsarama is never going to see another unpaid word from me--it's just not worth my time and trouble.